


The Necklace

by BakaDoll



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andrew finds his own way to confess his love to Neil, Fluff, Gift Giving, Love Confessions, M/M, They say i love you and idc what anyone says
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 05:23:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16612721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaDoll/pseuds/BakaDoll
Summary: Andrew never says 'I love you' to Neil, but that's okay. But then Andrew finds a way to say it without actually saying it.





	The Necklace

**Author's Note:**

> Heeellooooo my lovelies
> 
> This b is BACK AT IT AGAIN with the writing woohooo  
> Thank you all so much for your patience, this break was really good for me!! And I’m super happy to be back and present you with the FLUFFIEST shit as my start back into writing lmao
> 
> I hope you like it!

It wasn’t uncommon for Andrew to come back to the dorm with a gift for Neil. Even if he didn’t call them gifts. Sometimes he’d buy Neil a whole new outfit for Eden’s, mostly because he didn’t trust him to dress accordingly. Which, honestly, was fair. And Neil didn’t mind Andrew dressing him. Other times it would be Neil’s favourite sweets, a book Andrew saw and thought he might like or other small things that reminded him of Neil. And every time Neil’s heart made a little leap because, Andrew thought of him, even when they weren’t together, and he bought things because he thought Neil might like them.

This time it was different though. This time Andrew came back to the dorm with a little gift bag from a store Neil had never heard of before, but that looked quite expensive. He went straight to Neil, who was sitting on one of the bean bags watching TV, made Neil scoot to the side so Andrew could squeeze onto the seat with him, and put the bag in his lap.

“What’s that?” Neil asked, putting the remote down and curiously eyeing the bag.

“A gift,” Andrew said and Neil raised his gaze at him in surprise. Andrew didn’t say anything else about it though, so Neil opened the bag and took out the little box that was inside.

“Is it a ring?” Nicky suggested as he peered over their shoulders, lured closer by the words “a gift” coming from Andrew’s mouth, “Am I witnessing a proposal? Because if I do I have to get my phone from the bedroom to film this.”

“Shut the fuck up, Nicky,” Andrew huffed, annoyed. Neil couldn’t help a small, amused grin.

It wasn’t a ring. When Neil opened the box, he found a necklace in it instead. A silver chain with a two-pieced pendant; a circle with the letters “A B R A M” engraved and a separate, black stone in the middle. Neil felt his chest tighten when he looked at it. It was beautiful and it was so, so personal. It took all the strength in Neil to swallow the tears that were burning behind his eyes and tear his gaze away from the necklace and to Andrew instead. He was watching him, intently, carefully, weighing whether the gift was a good idea or not.

“Thank you,” Neil whispered after an eternity of silence, still not trusting his voice completely. He leaned over to Andrew, cupped his cheek in one palm and kissed the other as gently as he could. Andrew let him, and even leaned his head into the kiss the tiniest bit. “I love you.”

The only response Neil got was a quiet humm, one that Neil knew he’d feel vibrate through Andrew’s chest if he had a hand or a cheek on it, but he didn’t expect anything else.

Neil used those words for a while now. He knew he loved Andrew, and the first time he said it it was an accident, they just slipped out. He had been a bit scared it was too much too quickly for Andrew, but Andrew had only told him to shut up without any heat in his voice, and then kissed him silent. Andrew never said it to him, but that was okay. He didn’t have to use the word love to make sure Neil knew what he felt for him, it was the small, and not so small, things he did, like getting this necklace for him, that told him the truth.

***

Three weeks passed and Neil hadn’t taken the necklace off for even one day. He even wore it during practices and games, safely tucked away under his gear. Andrew had given him a couple annoyed looks and the others had asked about it, but there was nothing that would make Neil take it off. When he felt anxious, he touched the pendant, traced the circle and felt the engraved letters on the tip of his thumb, or curled his hand around it until the stone in the middle left a mark on his palm. It was something that grounded him, something that reminded him of all the things he had now, like the key to the house in Columbia back then.

“You’re an idiot,” Andrew murmured one day after watching Neil fidget with the pendant for a couple minutes. Neil just grinned at him and said, “I love you, Andrew.”

Andrew huffed and glanced at the necklace.

“I told you a hundred times already, junkie.” It made no sense, but Andrew didn’t explain his statement any further, so Neil gave up asking.

***

Neil ended up taking the necklace off after all, four weeks after Andrew gave it to him. He just wanted to look at it, cradling it in his palm and reading the letters on it over and over again. This name that was the only constant in his life, that Andrew knew meant so much to him and decided to have it engraved on the necklace. It was a sentimental gesture even Neil wouldn’t have expected from him.

It was then that Neil noticed something weird about the stone in the middle, after staring at it for way too long - Andrew would call him an idiot again if he was here to see him. It wasn’t entirely black, but Neil couldn’t tell if it was different colours, placed there on purpose, or scratches. Quickly he dug out his phone and turned the flashlight on to examine it more closely. Hopefully it weren’t scratches - it would be a shame if the necklace got damaged so quickly. But even with the added light Neil couldn’t tell, so he held the pendant closer to the cellphone’s light, holding it between his finger and thumb. There was definitely something, but it looked like it was inside the stone, rather than on its surface.

“Look at the fucking light, you dumbass.”

Andrew’s voice was so sudden and unexpected, Neil jumped and almost lost his grip on the pendant.

“Jesus, Andrew,” he gasped. Andrew was coming through the door, two bags from the grocery store down the road in hand. Neil was pretty sure most of his shopping consisted of ice cream.

“Don’t look at the stone. Look at the light,” Andrew just said, then turned and went to the kitchen to put away his buys.

Wait. The light? What was that supposed to mean? For a second Neil considered actually looking at the light of his cellphone, but he really didn’t want to blind himself. Andrew probably just wanted to make fun of him again.

Disregarding his suggestion, Neil pointed the light back at the pendant and stopped.

The light shone through the stone, throwing the pendant’s shadow on the legs of his dark sweatpants. But there was something else. He saw something inside the shadow of the stone, as if something was painted into it. Neil held the light closer and closer to the stone, and it became more and more clear, until the pendant lay flat on the back of Neil’s mobile. Inside the shadow was light. It formed letters, lots of them, and right in the middle of it all were two intertwined hearts.

Neil didn’t know how many languages there were and couldn’t read most of them, but he knew exactly what the words meant, because there were five languages he did speak in the midst of it.

_Я люблю тебя_

_Te amo_

_ Je t’aime _

_Ich liebe dich_

_I love you_

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to visit and support me on [my tumblr](http://fox-sleeping-minyard.tumblr.com/) and chat with me! ♥


End file.
